LA Galaxy vs. Isidro Metapan: Your Running Commentary

The Los Angeles Galaxy kick off their quest for a Champions League title when they take on El Salvador side Isidro Metapan at Home Depot Center tonight in CONCACAF Champions League action (10pm, FOX Soccer Channel).

The Galaxy will be without Landon Donovan tonight, but will be fielding all the rest of their starters against Metapan, which opened group play with a 3-1 victory against the Puerto Rico Islanders. Forward Nicolas Munoz will lead the Metapan attack against a Galaxy defense featuring all four first-choice defenders. Young midfielder Jose Villarreal gets the nod in place of Donovan tonight.

If you will be watching tonight's action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

I might be wrong about this but even if they could move it to a time like that, it would be inconvenient for the other CONCACAF leagues who follow different schedules than MLS. Because not everyone follows a roughly similar schedule (like in UEFA), the timing of the tournament is always going to be rough for some of the teams.

I think its important. It might take a few more years until the casual fan sees its importance, but I actually think the scheduling is fine.

What could help is MLS moving up the start of the season to early March that way the MLS teams that make the quarterfinals could be in a little better position to take on Mexican/Central American teams that are in mid-season form.

The comments here about the referee in this game and in a lot of the other games where a US team is involved are hilarious. Incompetent? Really? Yes, nearly every time a US team plays a team from another country in this competition the referee is “incompetent”, and always in such a way as to favor the team playing the US. Penalty kicks and red cards galore against the US team are the rule. That’s in addition to the biased refereeing throughout the game. I no longer watch these games. It’s quite pointless. There is no way a US team will ever win this competition again, no matter how good they are.

“Incompetent? Really?”
Yes. Really. I get the point of your post that the refereeing in games involving MLS teams always is biased but it’s not hilarious that people are calling incompetent officiating incompetent. It’s just stating facts.